After a tweet cost Elon Musk and his company $20 million (£16m) each in fines, the Tesla boss admitted it was “worth it”.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission fined Musk and Tesla a total of $40 million after the CEO tweeted he was considering taking the company private at $420 (£327) a share, adding that the “funding secured”.
When a Twitter user asked Musk about the ratio of likes was for his “funding secured” tweet, he replied saying “worth it”.
As well as the large fine, Tesla also needs to appoint an independent chairman by 13 November.
Favourite for the chairman position is James Murdoch, who is currently chief executive of 21st Century Fox, however, will soon leave the role and will be succeeded by his brother.
Murdoch is currently a non-executive director of Tesla.
“The Tesla chairman job is perfect for James. He’s working on this fund and will be sitting next to Elon … he’s going to get access to so much deal flow,” a person briefed on the discussions told the Financial Times.
Tesla reported profits of $312 million over the past three months, beating analyst expectations.
Musk told analysts that it was an “incredibly historic quarter”.
“Customers actually cared about the future of the company so much that they volunteered their time to help the company succeed. It chokes me up, actually,” he added.
Shares jumped 10% in after-hours trading.
Shares in the group (NASDAQ: TSLA) are currently trading up 5% at 330,90 (0822GMT).
